James Harden reached historic milestones on two fronts Sunday.
The problem was, one of them dubiously encapsulated the Houston Rockets‘ 116-109 loss at Orlando.
Harden scored 38 points to match Kobe Bryant’s record run of 16 30-point games from the 2002-03 season. But the reigning MVP was just 1-for-17 on 3-pointers, tying for the most 3-point misses in a game in NBA history.
Harden, who also had 12 assists and nine rebounds, nearly had a triple-double at halftime with 16 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. Orlando didn’t have the one-man show Houston did, but the Magic got scoring from all nine players and were only down 59-52 at halftime.
Harden matched Damon Stoudamire’s record for 16 missed 3-pointers in game. Stoudamire went 5-21 on in April, 2005, against the Warriors.
Houston’s first half was almost exclusively Harden’s dribbling behind the top of the 3-point line and taking step-back 3-pointers or driving to the basket for layups or lobs to Clint Capela. Harden was 1 for 9 from 3-point land. Four of his assists were alley-oops to Capela for dunks.
Austin Rivers added 25 points and Capela 17 points and 10 rebounds for Houston, which lost for only the fourth time in its last 17 games. But the Rockets could not overcome their shorthanded, injury-depleted lineup and were put away by the Magic’s 16-2 run late in the fourth quarter.
Information from ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press was used in this report.